MELROSE – Old coolers that held bottles of beer and battered shelves for wiggle worms and hooks are stacked in the gas bays like piles of junk. 

The front step at Chiappini’s Gulf Station is now a pile of orange clay. The rickety floor inside the 91-year-old iconic store/hangout joint/music/fish and tackle store is gone. Like the front stoop, all that remains is clay with a freshly carved trench to suggest the beginning of a plumbing project. 

The corner store at State Roads 21 and 26, built in 1935 during the Great Depression by Mark and Robin Chiappini’s grandfather, “Papa Joe,” was sold for $850,000 on May 6, three days after the grandsons closed the doors for good. 

The new owner is no stranger to local success. Chetan Patel, who also owns and operates the wildly popular Woodland Burgers and Wings at the BP on County Road 214 in Keystone Heights has built a tidy portfolio that also includes Woodland in Starke, Archer and Palatka and Cowboys Philly Cheesesteak and Chicken in Melrose. 

Patel bought Chiappini’s under the limited liability corporation name Charlie + Sun. The corporate address is listed in Melrose. 

According to Mark, Patel plans to spend about two months remodeling the old corner store but keep the original name and many of the legendary features like the stuffed animals and fish. 

The Chiappinis stopped selling gasoline during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Mark said the new owner will install new pumps and start selling gas again. 

Mark said Melrose has become more than a crossroad between Palatka, Keystone Heights, Starke and Gainesville. That, added with Patel’s rate of success, should guarantee Chiappini’s success for the next 91 years. 

Melrose is the crossroads of rural Florida, where lakes, small towns, churches, women’s clubs and youth baseball fields dominate the community spirit. 

 Developers planned to build the 270-acre Wildflowers Music Park in the Alachua County portion of the Four Corners section of Melrose. It would be a tribute to one of Gainesville’s biggest musical stars, Tom Petty. 

Residents, however, are protesting the project, and vow to resist all commercial development. They feel the music venue and festivals would attract thousands, create traffic and steal land set aside for agriculture. 

But Mark said development is inevitable. Growth needs space, and that’s the one thing Melrose has in abundance – along with charm. 

“Everything is changing,” Mark said. “New stuff is coming. I doubt we’ll recognize Melrose years from now.”